The colors my friend are blowin' in the wind.

Saturday was a dark, rainy day so no adventurous bike rides. Which is unfortunate because last weekend I had a great ride into the colors of New England and I had my camera, but true to lex form, the batteries were dead. :(! So, I missed a great opportunity to show the colors. Then this week has been windy and rainy so most of the pretty leaves blew away. But this morning I woke up to a beautiful autumn morning so I took a few pictures out my windows. This should be another good week of a healthy amount of work and good weather. So long as the Sox fans don't burn down our school, this week should be uneventful.

Interesting week!

With a bomb scare on Thursday that closed the school, the sighting of a BLACK squirrel (which I have found out is a melanistic phase of the Eastern Grey Squirrel), and threats of riots on campus because of the Red Sox winning, this has been a captivating week. It was a slow week in terms of teaching or my own work, which is a welcome relief but it seemed as if everyday there was something crazy that happened or could have happened. Hopefully the weekend will be less chaotic. We may have our first winter-like storm with frost and snow.

Wenn de Schnee faellt in de Schiet de Frost ist nicht wiet! :)

What a fall!

Well all the pretty leaves left the trees today with our high winds. But I have to say that it isn't so bad as what is happening in SoCal. I'm in shock when I hear the reports and watch the videos. Seeing the pictures reminds me of the time I lived in La Jolla and it saddens me that over a million people have been evacuated and so much of the area has been burned. As much as I understand that it is a natural thing and it will all grow back, just nature's way of rebirth, that doesn't seem to make it seem any better to watch all those poor people. Ok, I'll admit it, it saddens me to watch the pets being rescued or hear of the ones not. :(! Please, everyone keep these people in your prayers. For southern California, it is as bad as what happened in New Orleans, it is that devastating. Keep the pets in your prayers, too, please!

Ok, enough heavy stuff: What do you get if you cross a duck and a goose? A doose, or a guck, or a goock. I can't decide. We have a pond in the middle of campus that last week during our cold snap didn't have our Canadian Geese that are always there, I thought they may have moved on. A few days later, ducks took over. Now there are a gaggle of geese floating intermixed with the ducks. I walked by them the other day and I wondered if they would ever interspecies mix and if they did, what would we call the result. Anyway, I was tired of thinking of serious stuff, so I let my mind take a break.

Hope you are all enjoying your fall. I have nothing to complain about here...:)!

Crime in Sunderland

I got up early this morning to do my laundry and there is always a stack of the Amherst Bulletin, a small local paper that looks more like a University paper than one that covers seven towns/cities. It is kind of fun to read about the local scene. I guess that with my experience last night at the station I wanted to see what else is going on in Sunderland by way of crime. I found the reports funny so I wanted to share. (I am typing EVERYTHING that is listed for Sunderland, honest! I'm not leaving any crime out! :)!)

Police were called to Mike's Maze Oct 6 at 3:24pm for a report of a dog locked inside a closed-up car. Police said they opened the door of the vehicle, which belonged to a Holyoke man, so the dog could get some air.

A dog running down the side of a Sunderland street Oct 6 3:00pm was caught and returned to its owner.

People sitting inside a vehicle parked in an elementary school parking lot Oct 6 at 12:45 am told police they were gazing at the stars.

This was YESTERDAY's paper and they list occurences from the LAST week, but that was it. October 6th was a busy day...dogs, dog owners and "parkers"...welcome to my neighborhood: cows, tobacco growers, and real hard core criminals!

Crazy, busy week, punctuated by fraud.

Yes, I said fraud. It turns out I am a victim of credit card fraud, ie identity theft! Some guy in Texas (38) paid for an online dating subscription and a few things from Amazon.com. I found out from my company a few things, called the online dating people, got information and went to the police. It has a been a fun friday night and now the Sunderland police are on the case. My experience with CSI Orem helped me know what to tell the police and what to ask them for. The officer was impressed when I asked for a case number. I do have to say that I'm impressed with VISA. They called me to warn me about the activity. I know we caught the problem on my end in time, now we'll see if we can catch HIM!

This was an interesting ending to a very busy week. I had my first computer program due, I had to read four articles, start studying for my own test, proctor the undergrad Biomech midterm, correct their homework and labs, and try to stay sane. The weather this week has gone from a nice cool fall to a warm wet northeast. Actually, today reminded me of a june day in Germany....wet, warm and gloomy. I kind of liked it, I'll admit it. But I rode my bike to school and I had to take the bus home and leave my bike in my office because it was pouring when I finally left today. But it was a good thing that it was raining because I was able to come home and get my credit squared away.

Tallest library in the US

WOW, this has been a busy last week. We had our first homework in Biomech due. That means in the beginning of last week I was bombarded by students anytime I was in my office and late into the night by email. THEN I spent so long correcting the homework this weekend, finding which step the kids messed up on, writing in what they should have done, and giving them notes and book page references. I probably spent too long on it, but I'm done for about a week so that's ok. It also took a while to grade all the homework because the final question was a bit confusing and could be solved three different ways. So, I had to figure out not only which way the kids tried to figure it out, but then where they made the mistakes. The funny thing is, I doubt any of them realized that there were so many ways to answer the question. In fact, you could also have two different answers which were really describing the same thing, just in a different way. That really messed me up because I thought of all three ways, and I didn't know what was expected. It made grading it a bit stressful. Tomorrow and Wednesday we have review session that the other TA and I get to lead, so hopefully they will not bug me anymore at 11 o'clock at night! :) I have finally gotten to things that I needed to get done for MY classes, like write a computer program modeling a muscle, doing my own homework that is due tomorrow, and getting journal articles at the Library. That is actually what inspired this late night, last minute, quick message. Our library is the tallest library in the US. It is 26 stories tall. It sits right next to our pond on campus which is a hubbub of activity right now with all the geese. There is usually a large gaggle of geese who occupy the pond, but the left a few days ago, the pond had been over run with mallards, and then today a new gaggle was hanging out, I figured on its way south. They were just taking a break at UMass. So, anyway, the walk to the Library is quite enjoyable because not only does it get me out of my office, but I get to hang with wildlife. Anyway, I got there with my references in hand, got to a computer to find out where these references were, and I found out that I was headed to the 23rd floor. Yes, that means I was almost at the top. WOW it is high. Beautiful view though. There were a few students studying up there and I can see why, you really feel as if you are away from it all. It is quite peaceful and with the view you can see forever. It is tall enough to create wind but I didn't feel it swaying, so it isn't too scary. In the past, parts of bricks have fallen off the sides. There is now a fenced off space between the building and where students can be, so no more brick pieces will fall on us. The library is falling the library is falling...oh, well, not anymore! Anyway, it was pretty cool being so high up in a place that seems so underdeveloped.


Credit for the picture: http://www.umasswiki.com/wiki/Library. I found this website today, and if any of you would like to learn more about where I go to school, this seems like a pretty easy/cool site. A bit more REAL information than the official website and a bit more user friendly.

Leaf peeping the lex way!

Friday evening, a friend and I drove up to Vermont so that we could participate in a 100 mile bike ride through Northern VT. The ride was a "charity" ride for a ski resort run by the Cochran family (as in Jimmy of this day and age). The whole family has seen success in the World Cup and the Olympics. This little family run resort has three surface lifts run by tractor motors. The vertical seemed decent for only 350 feet of drop and the scenery was gorgeous. So what is with the fundraiser? This is the only non-profit ski resort in the east and possibly in the nation so the lift tickets are super cheap: $18 full day and $12 half day. This was the fourth of these rides. From the first three they were able to fund snow making which is just being finished and are hoping to pay it off very quickly. Unfortunately it IS a bit far for me...3 hours or so, but it would be fun to go up and see it in the winter. The lodge, if you can call it that has bibs and trophies showcasing the family's skiing experiences and successes, which was a neat thing to see (see pictures). Apparently, this family is the skiing family of the East Coast and it was pretty cool to meet them, ride with Jimmy, eat dinner with them and see a bit of East Coast skiing history.

So, let's get to the ride! We were supposed to leave at 9 am. So, I waited with my friend and about 15 others. Not a large turn out you say? Well, about 30 people left early and about 50 people came later and only did the 50mile loop which left at 12. This was a charity ride right? So, we all took off together, just talking, enjoying the beautifully perfect morning in Northern VT (Just east of Burlington, according to my GPS the locale says jericho, but we started in Richmond if you want to see where it was. We rode up through Jeffersonville, up to Waterville, down through Elmore, over to Montpelier and back to Richmond.) Anyway, we rode about 9 miles just great, nice and easy. Then we started climbing and my friend was leading us up, maintaining a nice pace that should have been great for everyone. Then some middle aged men started from the back "challenging" the young bucks. It was at this point I said to myself, "no, sir, I'm not getting involved with the testosterone battle...I don't have enough! Go ahead boys, kill yourselves for 'fun'!" So, I got dropped. But I was there for fun, I have had a really rough summer for training, and I was really excited to be in Vermont, that I really didn't care. So I continued the ride by myself and loved it. The Cochran's had painted at the important intersections which way to go and they had a nice hand out that helped us if we got lost. So, it was no biggie to be in a strange land by myself.













Besides, as you all can probably see, the view was great and I had no problem stopping and taking pictures. I stopped several times, but I'm only posting a few pics because as you can probably tell, the weather started to turn on us. I was so pretty in the morning then the storm moved in faster from Canada than was expected and it got cloudy and by the end of the first half it was dark but not too cold. The Cochran's also had three feed stations very well stocked and timed that riding alone was also not such a big deal because you checked in somewhere every 25ish miles. I admit that I stopped at the second stop longer than I normally would have but that was only because there was an adorable dog there that I just had to play with.
And as you can all see, we did have spectators. Along the way we had many sheep, dairy cows, and horses, but these ducks were so funny to me I had to take a picture. I watched them "run" from one end of a large field to the other towards a lone duck on the other side of a wire fence. I'm not sure what it was telling the flock, but they were surely listening and following the command! :)












The final stop was at the capital building in Montpelier.The city is actually really small and there was an amazing church that I was going to stop and get a picture of but I was in "traffic" (the most I had seen in 4 and a half hours of riding) so I just decided to ride thinking it was safer for me. I never really grabbed much food, but it was nice to get water and gatorade. Between the second and final stop it rained on me a bit but it was more refreshing and inspiring to me, since I usually ride better in the rain even if it was windy. Then after the final stop, about 5 miles into the final 24, it started raining, then hailing, then pouring and it poured and was REALLY windy (a head wind of course) the rest of the way. I have to admit, even though it is bad for the bike, I loved riding in the rain. Could have done without the wind though. The worst bit though was that I didn't really have much in the way of "extra" clothes because we were all expecting the storm SUNDAY! oops. I got as dry as possible and stayed inside until the rain stopped in time for us to reload the car and head home. Even with the wet and windy end, the ride was great. There was 7550 feet of vertical in 100 miles, great views of the mountains of VT and the colors of the east, an average of 62 degrees with 89% humidity, and it was a great way to "end" bike season and "begin" ski season.

Well we may have pushed that transition a bit more. First on the way home we drove down 100 which is the way one would go to many of the ski resorts in VT. We finally go to Killington as it got dark. I really didn't get to see much of it, but the "bases" were pointed out to me and WOW that place is HUGE. Sorry DV, PC and the Canyons, you don't know big until you have seen Killington. Since it was dark we really didn't have much to do, so it was a quick look. But I have to say, it is very difficult to get to any of the "resorts" so they offer many things to do because people really won't be going anywhere else. I also thought that these places were not really places one would go for "the day." After we left Killington, my friend who went to school in New Hampshire, wanted to stop for some dinner in Lebanon, NH. So we crossed over the border and the Connecticut river in to NH. For those of you who don't know "Lebanon" (as I didn't) it is the home of many ski companies distribution centers. Some have moved to CO or to UT (like Atomic), but this is apparently still the center of skiing in the US. So before we went to dinner we drove up by the airport and saw the buildings. Big deal you think? Well, maybe so, but I was excited, especially when I thought, "my new skis might be IN THAT WAREHOUSE RIGHT NOW!"

So, even though this area has been so dry the colors weren't great, it was still beautiful; even though I wasn't my best on the ride, I was good enough to have a fun day and enjoy the experience and not feel worthless afterwards; even though it is autumn and not winter, it is beginning to feel like ski season is around the corner. So much of life is about perspective and a great part of it is that we can look at things how ever we choose to. Sometimes I don't practice that talent, but for one day I did.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles. Emily Dickinson


(oh and by the way, "leaf peepers" is what the "natives" to the North East, especially those from VT and NH call those who drive up on the weekend to see the colors. So instead of driving up just for the colors as other tourists, I rode 100 miles around VT to see them...still a leaf peeper, but not a normal one! :)!!)